There is growing inequality between rural and urban areas in Albania. This situation occurs for many reasons and efforts to enhance the quality of rural life must include improvements to agricultural production, employment, infrastructure, environment and housing. The success of projects to improve rural areas will depend to a large extent on how they address the great number of small and fragmented farms. This paper focuses on the importance of including land consolidation as an instrument of rural development in Albania. In the Albania of today land fragmentation remains one of the most significant constraints which impede the development of rural areas in Albania with the agriculture sector most affected. The shift from centrally-planned to a market-oriented economy has profound implications for the prevailing social and economic system and the development of a democratic society in Albania. In broader context, rural development is critical for reducing global poverty and hunger. Extreme poverty is an essential rural phenomenon and, even with growing urbanization, poverty and hunger are expected to remain a prominent feature of rural areas. Land administration systems in terms of recording rights and delineate and demarcate relevant individual and/or communal boundaries represent a vital instrument to secure land tenure regimes and property rights in Albania. Improved access to land strengthens the social and economic position of rural and urban dwellers, enhances the sustainable management of natural resources (e.g. soil, land) and leads to increased food security and alleviation of rural poverty. Consequently the formulation of an appropriate land administration policy has a crucial influence on the socioeconomic development in Albanian society. This is specifically important not only in  transition but also in some developing countries where the implementation of land administration systems has largely failed to untie the wealth in land due to a variety of reasons. The main objective of the proposed paper is to identify (1) the relationship between land reforms and land tenure in the fragmentarization process and (2) the consolidation activities in Albania during last three years, and (3) their role on the sustainable rural development.

land consolidation; land administration; rural development

Presentation: oral